Rant - looking for a travel trailer

[johnsoax]

I wish some manufacturer made the trailer I was looking for. I have 4 children, and I use a SUV to carry the family. And from all the threads I constantly see here, and on other sites, I'm not the only one looking.

Right now I use a popup to fit everyone and still be able to carry all the gear we need. And for the type of camping we do, it is annoying to have to setup and tear down every day as we travel to our destination. Then when we are at our destination, we have to do a smaller setup and tear down everyday to convert tables and couches to beds to fit everyone.

Someone should be able to design a trailer that will give me 3 or 4 individual beds for the kids and a larger bed for my wife and I while still letting us have our gear for less than 550 lbs of tongue weight.

My vehicle is a pretty typical SUV that has a 550lb tongue weight and a towing capacity of 7700. Once I put all the gear in a trailer, I can pull the weight, but everything that has a floor plan we can use has a tongue weight that requires a 2500 or 3500 truck to pull it, before the gear is even in the trailer.

Why can't someone make something for larger families that fits the smaller vehicles that most people drive nowadays.

I know there are Hybrid trailers. If I wanted to deal with tenting issues, I would stay with the popup.

We want to be able to have a nice base camp for destination camping and be able to stop at places on the way there to make lunch/use the bathroom/ and sleep in the camper without deploying everything (stealth road camping).

Airstream used to build something like this, but they have gone $$$ high end, and super heavy. I can find much older trailers that might work, if I could actually find one for sale...

Anyone have any ideas?

[dodge_guy]

gmw photos wrote:

Lantley wrote:

patperry2766 wrote:
He ultimately ended up with a Jayco 23b hybrid....now you know the rest of the story.

Now I know.
To the OP thanks for playing this entire thread out despite all the grief you received over your commitment to your current TV.
Unlike Mick Jagger In the end you found satisfaction.

We don't yet know whether he found satisfaction. I just looked up a jayco 23B, and it will be interesting to see if he is happy with 700 pounds of tongue weight on the back of the Landy. Because that so-called advertised 365 pounds of tongue is going to balloon right up to close to 700 in the real world.
That trailer has a nice layout. Looks like a great layout for a family.

Properly loaded at 12% tongue weight of 5000lbs ready to travel will be 625lbs of tongue weight. He will need a WD hitch. That and the fact the Rover is a short wheel base and has a big axle to ball distance will make towing without one a bit dicey!!!

[gmw_photos]

Lantley wrote:

patperry2766 wrote:
He ultimately ended up with a Jayco 23b hybrid....now you know the rest of the story.

Now I know.
To the OP thanks for playing this entire thread out despite all the grief you received over your commitment to your current TV.
Unlike Mick Jagger In the end you found satisfaction.

We don't yet know whether he found satisfaction. I just looked up a jayco 23B, and it will be interesting to see if he is happy with 700 pounds of tongue weight on the back of the Landy. Because that so-called advertised 365 pounds of tongue is going to balloon right up to close to 700 in the real world.
That trailer has a nice layout. Looks like a great layout for a family.

[SoundGuy]

patperry2766 wrote:
He ultimately ended up with a Jayco 23b hybrid....now you know the rest of the story.

Lantley wrote:
To the OP thanks for playing this entire thread out despite all the grief you received over your commitment to your current TV.
Unlike Mick Jagger In the end you found satisfaction.

Not without compromising, which the OP insisted throughout this thread he would not do ... interesting considering he said in his very first post -

"Right now I use a popup to fit everyone and still be able to carry all the gear we need. And for the type of camping we do, it is annoying to have to setup and tear down every day as we travel to our destination. Then when we are at our destination, we have to do a smaller setup and tear down everyday to convert tables and couches to beds to fit everyone.

Followed later in the same post by -

"I know there are Hybrid trailers. If I wanted to deal with tenting issues, I would stay with the popup."

So apparently, after repeatedly insisting he wasn't willing to compromise, the OP has decided on a Jayco 23B which is a hybrid - i. e. still a trailer with tenting, just like his previous popup, and one that will still require the "setting up" he so vehemently insisted he wanted to get away from. So he did compromise, just as many in this discussion said he would have to do considering the limitations of his TV which he so loves. Unfortunate that in so doing the OP found it necessary to be so critical of those who were only trying to offer useful commentary based on what they themselves have discovered about the subject of trailers, towing, and tow vehicle capabilities. :S

[Lantley]

patperry2766 wrote:
He ultimately ended up with a Jayco 23b hybrid....now you know the rest of the story.

Now I know.
To the OP thanks for playing this entire thread out despite all the grief you received over your commitment to your current TV.
Unlike Mick Jagger In the end you found satisfaction.

[johnsoax]

dodge guy wrote:
When do we get pics of your new trailer?!

I pick it up next week, hasn't been scheduled yet.

[patperry2766]

He ultimately ended up with a Jayco 23b hybrid....now you know the rest of the story.

[dodge_guy]

BTW johnsoax, we don't hold grudges here (well some of us anyway) ;). We hope you keep coming back for more info. We really do want to help. I really am happy you found something that works for you.

When do we get pics of your new trailer?!

[dodge_guy]

Supposedly some kind of hybrid, but the post got deleted due to a few "remarks". LOL

[Lantley]

So what did he find?

[dodge_guy]

OK at least you found something you liked. But you did compromise, which is what we were trying to tell you in the 23 previous pages!

Good luck with your Hybrid!
Enjoy!

[johnsoax]

tbred wrote:

johnsoax wrote:

Stovepipe wrote:
This thread just got very confusing very fast...

And it got confusing because it looks like my large post from this morning was deleted...

I think the 4 letter D word probably did it. :E

I'm sure that was it.... One sentence out of 50 gets a post deleted... Oh well.

[tbred]

johnsoax wrote:

Stovepipe wrote:
This thread just got very confusing very fast...

And it got confusing because it looks like my large post from this morning was deleted...

I think the 4 letter D word probably did it. :E

[johnsoax]

Stovepipe wrote:
This thread just got very confusing very fast...

And it got confusing because it looks like my large post from this morning was deleted...

[2012Coleman]

dodge guy wrote:

tbred wrote:
Congrats on the new hybrid,glad you were able to find something suitable!

I don't think he ever found what he was looking for?! And he didn't want a hybrid because he already had a PuP.

Sounds like he made a compromise - something he was being berated for not doing.

[RinconVTR]

This went 23 pages...and still not closed. Wow.